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Course feedback questions

Here you'll find information about the content of course feedback surveys: common Aalto questions and school-specific questions as well as information and tips regarding course-specific questions.
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Aalto questions

Aalto questions are common to all courses at Aalto University. They are automatically included in all feedback surveys.

School-specific questions

On top of Aalto questions, each school has their own school-specific questions. These questions cover topics that this school considers important for the development of teaching. You'll find the school-specific questions below. These questions will also appear automatically in the feedback survey. 

Course-specific questions 

In the course feedback tool in MyCourses, the teacher has the opportunity not only to collect feedback with surveys during the course, but also to add their own questions to the end-of-course feedback survey. Below you will find a collection of pre-formulated questions as well as tips for formulating your own questions. In the library of the course feedback tool, you can find these ready-made questions in three languages. However, if you want to create your own questions, you can familiarize yourself with the tips below and see the available question types in the instructions of the course feedback tool.

Question library

Aalto's question library consists of commonly used, well-grounded questions in three languages. You can also find them in the question library in the course feedback tool in MyCourses.

How to formulate your own feedback questions?

  1. In one question, ask only one thing.
    Questions like “What worked well and what should be improved?” will result in confusing responses where it is difficult to define with certainty which category the student meant. So ask only about one thing in one question.  
  2. Define whether your question is quantitative or qualitative. 
    Are you looking for qualitative or quantitative data as a result? If you are out for a number, it is good to offer pre-defined response options. If you use an open field in a quantitative question, you might end up with responses including both numeric responses and verbal definitions. It is time consuming to go through this kind of data. 

    How much time did you use for this assignment? 
    Possible responses: a lot, about three hours, relatively ok, a bit too little, 1,5h 

    How much time did you use for this assignment? 
    Options:
    Less than an hour 
    1-2h 
    2-3h 
    Over 3h 

  3. Consider the ethical perspective. 
    We don't collect delicate information (e.g. concerning a person's health or convictions), or information that puts students' anonymity at risk.

    The feedback survey is shared between all teachers of a course. It is good to coordinate the content of the survey together and make sure that all teachers are aware of the content. Questions concerning any single person should be avoided. We collect feedback about actions and circumstances, not persons and their personal qualities.  
  4. Keep the number of questions moderate.
    Ask only about things that you can't get information on otherwise. If you can get the same information through analytics tools in MyCourses, it is most probably better to use that information channel. This saves your students' time for the most central contents in the feedback survey. 

    What information will you actually use and how? According to Principles of feedback in education at Aalto University feedback should have an impact. It is best to focus on themes you're developing now or planning to develop soon, and leave other themes for later.  It is good to pay attention to workload when developing your courses and yourself as a teacher. Small concrete development steps will take you in the right direction more sustainably and predictably than big and fast changes.
     

Feedback during the course vs. Feedback at the end of the course 

During the course, it makes sense to collect feedback about topics that can still be improved during the same course. In practice this can mean instructing the students better, adding support material, or choosing another tool or group work approach. Here are some ideas for feedback during the course: 

  • The rhythm of the teaching session, the amount of content 
  • Course practicalities and arrangements 
  • Preferred working methods 
  • Re-capping needs before the final exam or handing in a coursework 
  • New teaching methods used or experimented on the course 
  • Digital platforms or tools used  

Even if you'd give students a chance to ask during the lectures and by email, it is recommended to offer an anonymous channel for giving feedback, too. We come from different backgrounds, and for some students approaching the teacher is out of the question, or giving feedback can involve a fear of losing face. 

Questions requiring a more holistic development approach are best left in the end-of-the-course feedback survey. This kind of topics might be difficult to change during the same course implementation. It may also be easier for the students to assess them at the end of the course. 
 

Updating Aalto and school-specific questions 

The process for revising course feedback surveys is developed to support schools in revising their set of questions or adding new questions to the end-of-course survey.​ It can also be used for revising or adding Aalto questions.​

Every school has a decision-making body regarding educational matters. That body can also make decisions about course feedback questions. In BIZ it is EMT, in ENG it is MOOR and KOOR, and in ELEC it is OpLaa. For other schools it is the vice dean of education until some other decision is taken. For Aalto questions the decision-making body is LESG.

Teacher services offer support throughout this process. Do not hesitate to contact Teacher Services through [email protected].

Process for revising course feedback surveys
Process for revising course feedback surveys

Course feedback in Aalto University

Course feedback is a unique part of the feedback portfolio in Aalto University and it reaches students in all phases of their studies and is collected systematically throughout Aalto. Hearing the voice of students is vital for the development of teaching and education as well as for quality assurance and for improving study-related services. The course feedback tool can be found in MyCourses. Feedback is used on multiple levels in many ways and its utilisation is a special focus area at Aalto.

student, learning center, library

Course feedback as a course element 

Course feedback is a unique part of the feedback portfolio at Aalto university and it reaches students in all phases of their studies and is collected systematically throughout Aalto. Hearing the voice of students is vital for the development of teaching and education as well as for quality assurance and for improving study-related services. Feedback is used on multiple levels in many ways and its utilisation is a special focus area at Aalto.

Aalto University students doing group work, sitting at a table with their laptops and notebooks / photo by Aalto University, Aino Huovio

Main page for instructions of course feedback tool

At Aalto University, course feedback is collected from almost all courses. On these pages you will find teacher's instructions for using the course feedback tool on MyCourses.

Course feedback support illustration
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